Systems and methods for advertising using one or more rail cars

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for using rolling rail stock, such as one or more rail cars, as an advertising platform are provided. In one illustrative embodiment, a rail car or a portion thereof is adapted to appear like a product model of an actual product. For example, a tanker rail car may be painted or otherwise adapted to appear as an oversized soda can, and/or a box car may be painted or otherwise adapted to appear as an oversized tissue box. Alternatively, or in addition, a product model may be separately prepared and secured to a rail car. For example, the rail car may be a flat bed rail car, and may support a product model of a sour cream container, a car, a boat, or any other product.

DESCRIPTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods foradvertising, and more particularly, to systems and methods for usingrolling rail stock, such as one or more rail cars, as an advertisingplatform in high visibility locations.

2. Background

There are a wide variety of advertising outlets available toadvertisers. Some of these include television, radio, magazines,newspapers, billboards, trucks, as well as others. One under utilizedadvertising platform is the fleet of rolling rail stock, such as railroad cars. While some rail road cars may include a name of a companythat owns the rail car, there does not appear to be any systematicapproach to allow advertisers in general to use and exploit the ratherlarge advertising space provided by the fleet of rail cars. From theforegoing, it can be appreciated that there is a need for improvedsystems and methods for providing advertisers with access to rollingrail stock as an advertising platform.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides systems and methods for using rollingrail stock, such as one or more rail cars, as an advertising platform.In one illustrative embodiment, a rail car or a portion thereof isadapted to appear like a product model of an actual product. Forexample, a tanker rail car may be painted or otherwise adapted to appearas an oversized soda can, and/or a box car may be painted or otherwiseadapted to appear as an oversized tissue box. In these examples, all orpart of the body of the rail car may be used to form the shape of atleast part of the product model.

Alternatively, or in addition, a product model may be separatelyprepared and secured to a rail car. For example, the rail car may be aflat bed rail car, and may support a product model of a sour creamcontainer, a car, a boat, or any other product. In some cases, theproduct model may be the actual product, such as an actual car. Acombination of using part or all of the body of the rail car to form atleast part of the product model, as well as a separately preparedproduct model forming the rest of the product model, may also be used ifdesired.

In some illustrative embodiments, a fee may be accepted to adapt a railcar to include a product model, and/or to allow the adapted rail car tobe moved and/or parked on a rail road track. For example, an adaptedrail car may be parked on a rail road track in a high visibilitylocation (e.g. on a bridge that extends over a roadway), or may bereleased onto a rail road network, as desired.

In some cases, one or more messages may be provided on a rail car. Forexample, the one or more message(s) may include an advertising slogan,product information, product promotional information or the like. Oneillustrative product promotion may include, for example, a message thatcontains a unique promotional code on rail cars, along with a postal orweb address. A user seeing a rail car in the field may be prompted toforward the unique promotional code to the address, whereupon a coupon,a prize or any other suitable item or information may be provided. Insome cases, the return of the unique promotional code may enter the userinto a sweepstakes type drawing. The location at which the user saw therail car/advertisement may also be provided to the address, if desired.

In some embodiments, a location history of the particular rail car maybe provided to the user. The location history of the particular rail carmay prove to be interesting to the user, and may help increase theoverall participation in the promotion. For example, a user may find itinterested to know what cities the particular rail car he/she viewed hastraveled over the past month or other time period.

In some cases, the location history of the rail car may be used todetermine if the promotional code provided by the user corresponds to awinning promotional code. For example, an advertiser could specify thatOrlando, Florida is the city of the month, and any promotional code thatis associated with a rail car that passed through Orland, Florida in thelast month is a winning code. To determine if the promotional code is awinner, the user may be prompted to provide the promotional code to aweb site, which in some cases, may display additional advertising and/orpromotional information. In some cases, the user would not be notifiedif the submitted promotional code was a winner until after the specifiedmonth passes. This would not only help prevent winning promotional codesfrom being passed around to others, but also may help increase thenumber of times that the user must return to the web site, which in manycases, may increase traffic to the web site.

The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describeeach disclosed embodiment or every implementation of the presentinvention. The figures, description and examples which follow moreparticularly exemplify these embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of thefollowing detailed description of various embodiments of the inventionin connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention, which includes a number of rail cars with advertisementaffixed to at least one side parked in a high visibility location;

FIG. 2 is a top view of another illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention, which includes a number of rail cars with advertisementaffixed to at least one side parked in a high visibility location;

FIG. 3 is a top view of yet another illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention, which includes a number of rail cars withadvertisement affixed to at least one side parked in a high visibilitylocation;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an illustrative rail road network;

FIG. 7 is a print out showing location data for a number of rail cars ona rail road network;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of another illustrative step that can be usedin conjunction with the method of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of additional illustrative steps that can beused in conjunction with the method of FIG. 11;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an illustrative rail car that has beenadapted to appear like an oversized product;

FIG. 16 is a side view of another illustrative rail car that has beenadapted to appear like an oversized product;

FIG. 17 is a side view of an illustrative rail car that supports aproduct model;

FIG. 18 is a side view of another illustrative rail car that supports aproduct or product model; and

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars.

While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternativeforms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in thefigures and will be described in detail. It should be understood,however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to theparticular embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling withinthe spirit and scope of the invention.

DESCRIPTION

The following description should be read with reference to the drawings,in which like elements in different drawings are numbered in likefashion. The drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, depictselected embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention. Although examples of construction, dimensions, and materialsare illustrated for the various elements, those skilled in the art willrecognize that many of the examples provided have suitable alternativesthat may be utilized.

The present invention provides systems and methods for using rollingrail stock, such as one or more rail cars, as an advertising platform.In a first illustrative embodiment, one or more advertisements may beaffixed to at least one side of a rail car, and the rail car may beparked on a track in a high visibility location. In some cases, theadvertisement(s) promote a good or service of an entity other than theowner(s) of the rail car.

FIG. 1 shows one such illustrative embodiment. In FIG. 1, a first railcar 20 and a second rail car 22 are parked on track that extends over abridge 24. The bridge 24 extends over a roadway 26. The first rail car20 includes an advertisement 28 affixed to at least one side of the railcar 20. The second rail car 22 is shown having multiple advertisements32 a, 32 b and 32 c affixed to a side of rail car 22. The roadway 26 maybe chosen to be a fairly busy roadway, and thus the bridge 24 mayprovide a high visibility location for advertisements 28 and 32 a-32 c.

It is contemplated that the advertisement 28 may be affixed to the firstand second rail cars 20 and 22 in any suitable manner. For example, theadvertisement 28 may be painted on the side of the first rail car 20.Alternatively, the advertisement 28 may be provided on a film or othersuitable substrate that is then secured to the side of the rail car 20via an adhesive or the like. In yet other embodiments, the advertisement28 may be provided on a separate rigid substrate that is then affixed toa side of the rail car 20 by clips, screws, brackets or other attachmentmechanism. In some cases, the advertisement 28 may be configured to beretractable (e.g. like a window shade) and/or movable (e.g. a loop withmore than one advertisement provided thereon, which can then be rotatedto allow each advertisement to be scrolled and then displayed for aperiod of time), as desired. Advertisements 32 a-32 c may be affixed tothe second rail car 22 in a similar manner.

In some cases, the advertisements, such as advertisement 28, may beilluminated by one or more lights 30 a-30 d. In the illustrativeembodiment, the lights 30 a-30 d are mounted to the first rail car 20,but it is contemplated that lights 30 a-30 d may be provided on theground adjacent to the rail car 20, if desired. In some cases, thelights 30 a-30 d may be powered by a generator or the like that isstored in the first rail car 20. Similar lights may be provided toilluminate advertisements 32 a-32 c.

The rail cars 20 and 22 may be any suitable type of rail car. Forexample, the rail cars 20 and 22 may be freight cars such as box cars,tanker cars, hopper cars, gondola cars, automobile hauler cars, or anyother type of freight rail car, as desired. In some cases, the rail cars20 and 22 may be flat bed rail cars that are adapted to include avertically extending surface, similar to a bill board.

While only two rail cars 20 and 22 are shown in FIG. 1, it iscontemplated that only one rail car, or more than two rail cars, may beprovided if desired. In many embodiments, all of the rail cars will haveat least one advertisement affixed to at least one side. However, inother embodiments, only some of the rail cars will have advertisements.Preferably, at least thirty percent (30%) of the rail cars that areparked in the high visibility location have at least one advertisementaffixed to at least one side. In some cases, at least fifty percent(50%), and more preferably at least eighty percent (80%) of the railcars that are parked in the high visibility location have at least oneadvertisement affixed to at least one side. In some cases, one hundredpercent (100%) of the rail cars that are parked in the high visibilitylocation have at least one advertisement affixed to at least one side,but this is not required in all embodiments.

In some embodiments, the rail cars 20 and 22 may be parked continuouslyor substantially continuously in the high visibility location for anextended period of time, such as greater than a day, greater than aweek, greater than a month, greater than two months, or longer. In somecases, a monthly (or other agreed upon period) fee may be charged toallow the rail cars 20 and 22 to be parked on the track in the highvisibility location. Using the rail cars 20 and 22 in this fashion iscontrary to the normal use of a rail car, which in many cases, is tomaximize the use of the rail car for the transportation of goods.

In some cases, rolling rail stock such as one or more rail cars may bemoved along the track when in or around the high visibility location.For example, and in one illustrative embodiment, a mover 40 may beprovided that moves the rail cars 20 and 22 along a finite length of therail road track so that at least selected rail cars 20 and 22 pass bythe high visibility location over time. This may be particularlyadvantageous when all of the rail cars cannot be simultaneously viewedfrom the high visibility location. For example, and referring to FIG. 1,if four more rail cars were provided to the right of rail car 22, someof these rail cars may not be viewable by motorists traveling along theroadway 26. The mover 40 may move the rail cars over time, so that allor most of the rail cars can be exposed to the high visibility locationfor at least a period of time.

In some cases, the mover 40 may move the rail cars back and forth alonga finite length of rail road track so that at least selected rail carsrepeatedly pass the high visibility location over a period of time. Itis contemplated that the mover 40 may move the rail cars incrementally,with a delay between each incremental move, or continuously, as desired,and the mover 40 may be manned or un-manned, depending on theapplication.

In some cases, the mover 40 may move the rail cars so that particularrail cars are exposed to the high visibility location at certain timesof a day or week, and other rail cars are exposed at other times of theday or week. For example, the mover 40 may move the rail cars such thata first set of rail cars are exposed to the high visibility locationduring the morning commute, a second set of rail cars are exposed duringlunch time, and yet a third set of rail cars are exposed during theevening commute. Alternatively, or in addition, the mover 40 may movethe rail cars such that a first set of rail cars are exposed to the highvisibility location during the work week, and a second set of rail carsare exposed during the week end. These are just a few examples of howthe mover 40 can change which rail car advertisements are displayed overtime.

FIG. 2 is a top view of another illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention. This illustrative embodiment includes a number of rail cars50, some or all of which have an advertisement affixed to at least oneside, which are parked adjacent and extend substantially parallel to aroad way 52. The rail cars 50 are preferably moved and then parkedoutside of a conventional rail yard. FIG. 3 is a top view of yet anotherillustrative embodiment of the present invention, which includes anumber of rail cars 60, some or all of which have an advertisementaffixed to at least one side, which are parked adjacent to a parking lot62, a shopping center 64 and/or a sporting event 66. The rail cars 60shown in FIG. 3 are also preferably moved and then parked outside of aconventional rail yard.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars. In theillustrative method, a track in a high visibility location is provided,as shown at 72. A fee is then negotiated and accepted to allow one ormore rail cars, at least some of which have an advertisement affixed toat least one side, to be parked on the track, sometimes for an extendedperiod of time.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars. In thisillustrative method, a track in a high visibility location is provided,as shown at 82. A fee is then negotiated and accepted, as shown at 84,for: (1) affixing an advertisement to one or more rail cars, as shown at86; parking the one or more rail cars on the track, as shown at 88; andleaving the one or more rail cars on the track continuously orsubstantially continuously for a period of time, as shown at 90,sometimes for an extended period of time.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an illustrative rail road network. Theillustrative rail road network shown in FIG. 6 is not intended toaccurately represent the actual rail road network in the United States,but rather is only schematically shown for discussion purposes. Also, itis recognized that other countries have similar rail road networks, andthat the present invention is equally applicable to those rail networksas well.

The illustrative rail road network is generally shown at 100 andincludes a number of routes that pass between hubs. Thus hubs are shownas black dots, and the routes are shown as lines extending between theblack dots. The hubs may correspond to rail yards, and are often locatedin or near cities. During use, goods are typically loaded onto rail carsat one of the hubs, and the rail cars are sorted by destination hub andhooked together to form trains. The trains are then driven to adestination hub, and the rail cars for that destination hub are unhookedand ultimately unloaded. In some cases, rail cars are hooked to a trainand delivered to an intermediate location, and then hooked to one ormore other trains before arriving at the desired destination hub.

In many cases, short line and/or regional rail lines provide local andregional service, and national rail lines provide long distance service.For example, and in one scenario, a short line rail road may pickup/load rail cars from local businesses, and deliver the loaded railcars to a rail yard of a regional or national rail line. The regional ornational rail line may then pick up and deliver the rail cars to a railyard in a destination city. A short line rail road that services thedestination city may then pick up the rail cars and deliver the railcars to local businesses. This is just one scenario that often occurs ona rail road network 100, but is should be recognized that many otherscenarios also are commonly used and practiced.

To help keep track of the rail cars on the rail road network 100, thelocation of each rail car is often tracked and recorded at one or morepoints in time using, for example, scanners positioned at predeterminedlocations along the rail road network 100. The rail road network 100 inthe United States is outfitted with a network of Automatic EquipmentIdentification (AEI) scanners. To support these scanners, many rail carshave a Radio Frequency Identification tag (RFID) attached to each sideof the car. The network of scanners, which are positioned atpredetermined locations across the rail road network 100, read the RFIDtags and report the location, as well as other information related tothe rail cars as they pass, to a centralized computer. Companies such asSteel Roads™ of Cary, North Carolina, provide a subscription servicethat allows subscribers to obtain the location data of their rail carsat any give time. In some cases, and particularly for high value freightsuch as produce, the location of the rail cars may be provided by GlobalPositioning Systems affixed to the rail cars.

In many cases, rail cars travel widely across the rail road network 100every year. FIG. 7 is a print out showing location data for a number ofrail cars that were released from Lakeville, Minn. as free runners ontothe United States rail road network. A free runner is a rail car thatcan be sent anywhere on the rail network, and no effort is made to keepthe rail car on the owner's own rail lines or returned to the owner'sorigin or site. When the rail car is unloaded at a destination site, therail car may be assigned and used by anyone for transporting anotherload. Typically, a shipper may make a request for a particular type ofrail car, and if a free runner rail car having the desiredcharacteristics is available, it is assigned to the shipper for use. Theowner of the free runner rail car is typically compensated on a per milebasis by the shipper. In many cases, free runners move about the railnetwork in an unpredictable manner, often traveling to many parts of therail network over time (e.g. on a national scale), as can be seen fromthe data shown in FIG. 7.

Some rail cars may be assigned to a particular route, such as betweentwo or more locations. One example of this might be a rail car that isassigned to a route that extends between a coal mine and a sea port. Inyet other cases, rail cars may be assigned for use exclusively or almostexclusively on an owner's own rail network. In any event, rail cars canoften travel across a wide geographic area over a relatively short timeperiod, often including both rural and urban areas, which may providedesirable exposure for a particular advertising campaign.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network. The illustrative method is entered at step 1 20. A fee isnegotiated and accepted for providing an advertisement on one or morefreight cars, as shown at 1 22, and for releasing the freight cars ontoa rail road network as shown at 126. In some cases, the fee may besimply for providing a freight car, and for releasing the freight caronto the rail road network. The advertisement may be affixed to thefreight car by the advertiser himself or a third party, if desired.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network. This illustrative method is entered at step 130. A fee isnegotiated and accepted for providing advertising on a freight car, asshown at step 132. Once the fee is negotiated and accepted, anadvertisement is provided on a freight car as shown at 134, and thenreleased onto a rail road network as shown at 136. Once released, thelocation of the freight car may be tracked and recorded at one or morepoints in time and stored as location data, as shown at 138. At leastsome of the location data may be provided to a designated person orentity, as shown at 140, which in some cases may be the advertiser. Thelocation data may show the real time and/or historical movement of thefreight car along the rail road network 100. In some cases, the feecharged to the advertiser may depend on the path that is actually takenby the rail car, but this is not required in all embodiments.

In some cases, the freight car may be released onto the rail roadnetwork 100 with a free runner status. As detailed above, a free runneris a rail car that can be sent anywhere on the rail network, and noeffort is made to keep the rail car on the owner's own rail lines orreturned to the owner's origin or site. Alternatively, and as shown inFIG. 10, the freight car may be assigned to a particular route, such asbetween two or more locations. One example of this might be between acoal mine and a sea port. In yet other cases, the freight car may beassigned for use exclusively or nearly exclusively on a particular railroads tracks.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method for generatingadvertising revenue through the use of one or more rail cars on a railroad network. This illustrative method is entered at step 150. At step152, an agreement is formed between two or more rail road entities, eachhaving at least one rail yard connected to a common rail road network.The agreement may be formed between, for example, short rail lines,regional rail lines, national rail lines, and/or any combinationthereof. The agreement may include, for example, an obligation for eachrail road entity to perform quality checks on advertisements positionedon those rail cars that are owned or leased by the other rail roadentities that are part of the agreement. These quality checks may beperformed when the rail cars enter or are in the rail yard of thereceiving rail road entity.

As shown at 160 in FIG. 12, the agreement may also include an obligationfor each rail road entity to perform maintenance on advertisementspositioned on those rail cars that are owned or leased by the other railroad entities that are part of the agreement. The maintenance on theadvertisements may be performed when the rail cars enter or are in therail yard of the receiving rail road entity. Maintenance may include,for example, removing graffiti from the advertisements, replacingdamaged advertisements, as well as other maintenance tasks.

Referring back to FIG. 11, each of the rail road entities that are partof the agreement may accept a fee for placement of advertisements on oneor more of its rail cars, as shown at 154, and each rail road entity mayrelease one or more of its rail cars that have a placed advertisementonto the rail road network, as shown at 156.

Once the one or more rail cars are released onto the rail road network,and as shown in FIG. 13, the location of at least selected rail cars onthe rail road network may be recorded at one or more points in time andstored as location data, as shown at 162. As shown at 164 in FIG. 13, atleast some of the location data may then be provided to at least onedesignated person or entity, such as one or more of the participatingrail road entities, a client advertiser, or any other designated personor entity as desired.

In some cases, it may be desirable to provide targeted advertising alonga specific route. For example, it may be desirable to provideadvertising along a stretch of road that is hosting a bike race, along astretch of river that is hosting a boat race, or along a stretch of roadthat is known to be clogged during certain times of a day or year. Theseare only some examples. To provide such targeted advertising, andreferring to FIG. 14, it may be desirable to provide an advertisement onone or more rail cars that travels adjacent to the target audience. Thismay be accomplished by, for example, moving a train that includes one ormore rail cars with affixed advertisements along a track from a firstlocation to a second location and that passes the target audience, andthen back to the first location, without delivering any goods. That is,the rail cars may in some cases be moved along the track for the solepurpose of advertising, and not for the transport of goods. The selectedroute between the first location and the second location may passadjacent to the desired targeted audience. A fee may be accepted toprovide such advertising and for moving the one or more rail carsbetween the first and second locations.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an illustrative rail car that has beenadapted to appear like a product model of an actual product. In theillustrative embodiment shown in FIG. 15, a tanker rail car 1 80 hasbeen painted or otherwise adapted to appear as an oversized soda can. Inthis illustrative embodiment, part of the rail car (e.g. the tank) isused to form at least part of the shape of the product model. Paint, anapplied film or other suitable method has been used to transform thetank part of the tanker car to resemble the soda can. A tanker car maybe particularly suitable for adoption to resemble cylindrically shapedproducts, such as bottles, cans, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls,Life Saver™ candies, tubes of dough, and/or the like. In some cases, theends of the tank part of the tanker car may also be adapted to appearlike the end of the actual product, such as shown at 182.

FIG. 16 is a side view of another illustrative rail car that has beenadapted to appear like a product model of an oversized product. In thisillustrative embodiment, a box car 200 has been painted or otherwiseadapted to appear like an oversized tissue box. Like above, part of therail car (e.g. the box) has been used to form at least part of the shapeof the product model. Paint, an applied film or other suitable methodhas been used to transform the box part of the box car to resemble thetissue box. A box car may be particularly suitable for adoption toresemble rectangular shaped products, such as tissues boxes, juiceboxes, cake mixes, cereal boxes, bread loafs, shoe boxes, gum packs,books, office supplies, portable music players, computer and/or computercomponents, and/or the like. In some cases, the ends of the box of thebox car may also be adapted to appear like the end of the actualproduct.

Alternatively, or in addition, a product model may be separatelyprepared and secured to a rail car. For example, and as shown in FIG.17, the rail car may be a flat bed rail car 210, and may support aproduct model of, for example, a sour cream container 212. It iscontemplated that the flat bed rail car 210 may support a product modelof virtually any types of product including, for example, a car, a boat,or any other product of interest. In some cases, the product model maybe the actual product itself, such as an actual car or actual boat, asshown in FIG. 18.

A combination of using part or all of the body of the rail car to format least part of the shape of the product model, as well as a separatelyprepared product model forming the rest of the product model, may alsobe used if desired. For example, and as shown in FIG. 15, the end of thetank car 180 may include a separately prepared product model 182 of thetop part of a soda can, and subsequently secured to the end of the tankcar 180, but this is not required. In another example, and as shown inFIG. 16, a separately prepared product model 202 of a tissue may beprepared and subsequently secured to the top of the box car 200.

In yet another example, a box car may be adapted to appear as a Nike™shoe box, and a separately prepared product model of part or all of ashoe may be mounted on the roof of the box car so that it appears fromthe side that part of a shoe is protruding from the top of the shoe box.In another example, a gondola car may be adapted to appear as a planter,and a separately prepared product model of one or more oversized rosesmay be mounted on the roof of the gondola car so that it appears fromthe side that one or more roses are protruding from the top of theplanter. A message such as “Our Roses are Bigger” may be provided on theside of the gondola car. Custom built rail cars may also be fabricatedto create different effects for different products.

In some illustrative embodiments, a fee may be accepted to adapt a railcar to include a product model, and to allow the adapted rail car to bemoved and/or parked on a rail road track. For example, and as shown inFIG. 19, a fee may be accepted for adapting rail car and/or for parkingan adapted rail car on a rail road track that is in a high visibilitylocation (e.g. on a bridge that extends over a roadway), or forreleasing or moving the adapted rail car about a rail road network, asdesired.

In some cases, one or more messages may be provided on a rail car. Forexample, the one or more message(s) may include an advertising slogan,product information, product promotional information or the like. Oneillustrative product promotion may include, for example, a message thatcontains a unique promotional code on rail cars, along with a postal orweb address. The illustrative box car shown in FIG. 16 includes themessage “Go to www.webaddress.com, and enter Code 232214 to see if youwin”. A user seeing the box car in the field is thus prompted to forwardthe unique promotional code to the address, whereupon a coupon, a prizeor any other suitable item or information may be provided to the user.In some cases, the return of the unique promotional code may enter theuser in a sweepstakes type drawing. The location at which the user sawthe rail car/advertisement may also be provided to the address, ifdesired, in some cases to help validate the code.

In some embodiments, the location history (see, for example, FIG. 7) ofthe particular rail car may be provided to the user. The locationhistory of the particular rail car that he/she saw may prove to be ofinterest to the user, and may help drive and or increase the overallparticipation in the promotion. For example, a user may find itinterested to know what cities the particular rail car he/she saw hastraveled over the past month or other time period.

In some cases, the location history of the rail car may be used todetermine if the promotional code provided by the user corresponds to awinning promotional code. For example, an advertiser could specify that“Orlando, Florida” is the city of the month, and any promotional codethat is associated with a rail car that passed through Orland, Floridain the last month is a winning code.

To determine if the promotional code is a winner, the user may beprompted to provide the promotional code to a web site, which in somecases, may display additional advertising and/or promotionalinformation. In some cases, the user would not be notified if thesubmitted promotional code was a winner until after the specified monthpasses. This would not only help prevent winning promotional codes frombeing passed around to others, but also may help increase the number oftimes that the user must return to the web site, which in many cases,may increase traffic to the web site.

The invention should not be considered limited to the particularexamples described above, but rather should be understood to cover allaspects of the invention as set out in the attached claims. Variousmodifications, equivalent processes, as well as numerous structures towhich the invention can be applicable will be readily apparent to thoseof skill in the art upon review of the instant specification.

1. A rail car, comprising: a body; and a product model adapted to appearsimilar to an actual product, at least part of the body forming at leastpart of the shape of the product model.
 2. The rail car of claim 1,wherein the body includes a tank, and wherein the tank forms at leastpart of the shape of the product model.
 3. The rail car of claim 2wherein the product model is adapted to appear similar to a beveragecan, and the tank includes a cylindrical portion that forms at leastpart of the beverage can.
 4. The rail car of claim 3 wherein at leastpart of the cylindrical portion of the tank is painted to appear similarto a beverage can.
 5. The rail car of claim 3 wherein at least part ofthe cylindrical portion of the tank includes a film secured thereto toappear similar to a beverage can.
 6. The rail car of claim 1 wherein theproduct model is shaped as a box or can, and the body includes a boxlike structure that forms at least part of the box or can.
 7. The railcar of claim 1 wherein the product model is oversized relative to theactual product.
 8. A rail car, comprising: a body; and a product modeladapted to appear similar to an actual product, the product model beingsecured relative to the body.
 9. The rail car of claim 8 wherein theproduct model is oversized relative to the actual product.
 10. The railcar of claim 8, wherein the body includes a flat bed, and the productmodel is secured on the flat bed.
 11. A method for generating revenuefrom the use of a rail car, the method comprising: providing a rail carthat is adapted to include a product model that appears similar to anactual product; and accepting a fee to allow the rail car to be movedalong the track.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the rail car isreleased onto a rail road network.
 13. The method of claim 11 whereinthe rail car is parked on a rail road track in a high visibilitylocation.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the rail car is parked on abridge that passes over a road way.
 15. The method of claim 11 whereinthe rail car is moved along a finite length of rail road track so thatthe product model passes the high visibility location.
 16. The method ofclaim 15 wherein the rail car is moved back and forth along the finitelength of rail road track to that the product model repeatedly passesthe high visibility location.
 17. The method of claim 11 wherein therail car includes a body, and at least part of the body forms at leastpart of the product model.
 18. The method of claim 11 wherein the railcar includes a body, and the product model is secured relative to thebody.
 19. A method for promoting a product, the method comprising:providing a unique promotional code on each of two or more rail cars;and providing a web site that allows a user to enter a promotional code,the web site adapted to determine if the promotional code provided bythe user matches one of the unique promotional codes that was providedon the two or more rail cars.
 20. The method of claim 19 furthercomprising the step of determining if the promotional code provided bythe user is a winning promotional code.
 21. The method of claim 20further comprising the step of notifying the user if the promotionalcode provided by the user is a winning promotional code.